Northwest Passage : The Admiralty
takes over, a historical account

In the first half of the 19th century the search for a Northwest
Passage moved further north in the Arctic regions and became a scientific
and geographical venture largely promoted by John Barrow, Second
Secretary of the Admiralty from 1804 to 1845. Barrow was also prompted
by his belief, expressed in an anonymous article in the Quarterly
Review of October 1817, that Russian exploration posed a threat
to British North America.

In 1818 ships of the British Navy under the command of John Ross
sailed to Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound but did not go further because
Ross believed the Sound was only a small inlet enclosed by mountains.
In the following year Edward Parry, who had sailed with Ross, led
an expedition westward along the sound as far as Melville Island
where his ships wintered, winning the Admiralty award for passing
110º west meridian. No other ship would reach Melville Island
without the aid of steam. Both Parry (in 1819-20 and 1821-23) and
Ross (in 1829-33) made further unsuccessful attempts to find a passage,
while overland expeditions by John Franklin (in 1819-22 and 1825-27),
George Back (in 1833-35) and Peter Dease and Thomas Simpson (in 1837-39)
explored and surveyed many miles of Arctic coastline.

Franklin's 1819-22 expedition explored the north coast of America
eastward from the mouth of the Coppermine River, verifying Hearne's
discovery of the Arctic coast in 1770-72. At Turnagain Point they
turned back because of short provisions and the approach of winter,
and had an epic struggle overland on the return journey. During this
trek, an Iroquois member of the party murdered Midshipman Robert
Hood, before being executed by Franklin's second-in-command, Dr John
Richardson, and about 10 men died of starvation before help came
from the Indians. Franklin's 1825-27 expedition was much better organised
than that of 1819-22. On this occasion he explored the north coast
of America westward from the Mackenzie River delta. He was due to
meet Frederick Beechey in the Blossom, who sailed around Cape Horn
and through the Pacific to Bering Strait, but had to turn back within
160 miles of a boat from the Blossom sent to meet Franklin. Otherwise
the expedition (which included John Richardson's eastwards exploration
from the Mackenzie) successfully charted an area comprising half
the Arctic coast of Canada and a large stretch of the Alaskan seaboard.

George Back, who was with Franklin on his two land expeditions,
went in 1833-35 to look for John Ross, whose 1829-33 expedition was
long overdue. Back went overland and explored the Great Fish (Back)
River. After news reached him that Ross had returned to England,
Back continued to explore the Back River, making the difficult descent
and extensively exploring the sea coast. In 1837-39, Dease and Simpson
led an expedition for the Hudson's Bay Company to explore from the
Mackenzie River those parts of the coast of the Arctic Ocean that
had not already been explored by Franklin. After their journeys only
a small part of the Northwest Passage remained to be surveyed. Simpson
hoped to continue his discoveries but a combination of circumstances
forced him to return home. Unfortunately on his way south from the
Red River Settlement, Simpson met a violent death which is still
shrouded in mystery.

Now that much of the Arctic coastline had been mapped, Barrow decided
to organise a major expedition that was believed would solve the
enigma of the Northwest Passage once and for all. On May 19, 1845,
the 59- year-old Sir John Franklin, together with 127 officers and
men, set sail in the Erebus and Terror in the unexplored region
between the south side of Barrow Strait and the north coast of America.
In July 1845 two whalers sighted Franklin's ships in northern Baffin
Bay, but after that, the members of the expedition lost all contact
with the outside world.